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We can all be tabloid journalists.

Becker’s article, Photojournalism and the Tabloid Press, basically describes tabloid journalism as a disgrace to real journalism. The author describes the tabloid press as fully relying on the photos with themes historically pertaining to, violence, sex, accidents, and society scandals. If we look at tabloids today these themes are still the driving force. Go to any check out line at Wegmans and you will see Katie Holmes and Suri strolling down the street with a caption saying something like, “Life without Tom.” We love to know what celebrities are doing, and butt in on their daily lives, and the tabloids help us to do that.

Now call me crazy but tabloid photojournalism is starting to creep in to our personal lives, where we are all the celebrity subjects that can be the next victims to land of the front page. How you may ask? I’ll tell you…Facebook. As much as we love to see what celebrities are doing day to day, we love even more to “stalk” our peers and see who got a little too rowdy at the bar last weekend. Facebook has become our own personal tabloids in a sense. When we sign on we are directed to a “news feed” where we can see into everyones lives. And lets face it, not all of these pictures are professional.

Maybe tabloids and celebrities weren’t enough we had to take it another step and nose in on our friends and family, only further insulting actual journalism in the process.

Comments

I agree with you. People have even started to pretend they’re journalists by “tweeting” all kinds of information, not caring whether they are true or not. Becker mentions that sensational journalism’s audience is reconstructed as “a mass, undifferentiated and irrational.” (P. 237).

Well, you are right! Facebook and tweeter have become a medium where we have become a journalist of or own life. We post everything (real pictures) and we follow anyone important for us because we care about their life and believe on what they post. As barbie said in her article ““A photo did not illustrate a story but it is the story”

I appreciate your point of view, but I don’t necessarily agree. I think Facebook and Twitter are personal. People share photos to connect with others. Photojournalists are expected to be unbiased and report hard news. Social media, on the other hand, has pictures from specific individuals to limited audiences. The purposes of the pictures differ. People do abuse Twitter as a form of tabloid by creating fake celebrity accounts, spreading false rumors, etc. However, I think the vast majority of social media is more personalized and doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation.

I agree the Facebook and Twitter, when utilized in this way, fulfill a need for people to look into others’ lives, even if we do not know these people on a personal level. It has also been shown to be psychologically damaging and studies have show that people often have a skewed perspective when comparing their own lives to those of whom they see on Facebook. People can be more likely to believe that others have happier or more fulfilling lives than their own, based on what they see on Facebook.

Hopefully some day soon the world will get its news from the people. where every body and post a report on something thats happening in the world, the internet is a huge step forward to society with unified press.